Substudies for WRAP Participants

Anesthesia and Surgical Risk Factors for Alzheimer's Disease in Adult Children of Persons with Alzheimer's Disease:
The potential for adverse consequences of surgery and anesthesia in months to years after a surgical operation has very recently became a new focus of research. In this WRAP follow-on investigation funded by the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF), we will test whether anesthetic and surgical risk factors contribute to the onset and progression of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) in WRAP participants who may be susceptible because of family history with one or both parents having AD. No other study has evaluated anesthetic and surgical risk factors that may be associated with AD in a comparable population.

In this project, current and future WRAP participants will be asked for consent to enter details from their previous anesthetic and surgical records into the WRAP database. Factors we will investigate on the records will include the type and outcome of surgery, the duration of anesthesia and the drugs used, and the presence of complications in the recovery period. This information may help to identify aspects of surgical and anesthesia care that may predispose a proportion of otherwise healthy patients at risk for AD to negative, and possibly avoidable, neurologic outcomes after surgery and anesthesia.

For more information contact Diane Backes, RN, Department of Anesthesiology, UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

Phone: 608-265-3239 or 1-877-500-3280
Email: dbackes@wisc.edu